


float

by deanpendragon



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aquariums, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Gift Fic, Graduation, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-15 01:44:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9213650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deanpendragon/pseuds/deanpendragon
Summary: Kei and Yamaguchi have been visiting the aquarium since they were small. This time is different.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dat_heichou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dat_heichou/gifts).



> heyo! this is my gift for the lovely dat_heichou for the tsukkiyama gift exchange 2k16/17! <3
> 
> she wanted nervous third-years, graduation and cute animals. i hope you like it fam.

Yamaguchi stands on the lowest of the steps that ascend to the upper level and pouts.

“Come on, Tsukki,” he whines. “This is _your_ graduation present, after all. Don’t you want to see everything?”

Throngs of babbling children clamber down the staircase, lead by a disheveled woman and one of the aquarium attendants, clipboard in hand. One of the children yanks on Yamaguchi’s plastic poncho with a sticky hand in passing, the one he was given when they sat first row at the Aquatic Show and has refused to take off since this morning. Kei’s own poncho crinkles when he shrugs.

“Not really.”

“Tsukki,” Yamaguchi whines again.

“They’re not even fish,” Kei says of the mammals-only upper level. “Besides, you know as well as I do that we only go upstairs every other time we visit. We did last time. Let’s go to the tide pools.”

Yamaguchi sticks out his bottom lip, effectively gluing Kei to where he stands.

“But this time is different. We’ve got to do our full rounds this time, Tsukki.”

“Why?”

“We won’t be in high school after next week.”

“I don’t see what that has to do with—”

Kei halts because Yamaguchi turns and zips up the stairs, purple poncho crumpling noisily. He takes a second to eye the spot Yamaguchi stood before Kei winds his way around an older couple and follows him up the staircase. A frenzied child with a lollipop in each hand narrowly misses him on the landing.

Kei continuously pushes their graduation to the very back of his mind, and he would greatly appreciate if Yamaguchi would stop bringing it up. Kei has distinguished a fine line Yamaguchi has gained on his face in the last week or so. Just a tiny pinch between his eyebrows. It makes him look eternally concerned; a kind of focused anxiety, like he walks a tightrope Kei can’t see. He’d informed Yamaguchi of the line when he first noticed. Yamaguchi’s reaction was similar to when Kei told him he’d gained another freckle on his left cheek in the summer before they turned thirteen—mahogany eyes sparkling, mouth falling open slightly. Both times, Kei averted his eyes. Too bright.

He finds Yamaguchi wedged between the wall and an empty stroller, the only open spot along the glass partition that overlooks the otter exhibit. He teeters on his tiptoes for a better view. Kei slides in next to him when the stroller is rolled away.

Yamaguchi pushes into Kei’s side and frets, “I don’t see Tobi. Do you?”

Yamaguchi appointed the name to the otter with an extra appendage when they were twelve—so, so proud of his pun.

“I don’t see him. Maybe he’s in the den.”

“I miss him,” Yamaguchi coos.

Kei drums his fingers on the railing. “Let’s jump in and find him.”

“Okay,” Yamaguchi agrees easily. “I think we’d fit in pretty well, Tsukki.”

“Me too. Except for your _no swimming_ thing.”

“Yeah, Tsukki. Except for that.”

“A minor detail,” shrugs Kei.

Yamaguchi turns a grin on him. He turns back when one of the tiniest otters emits a loud _peep_.

“Let’s do it,” he mutters distractedly as he watches the creatures wiggle over the exhibit rocks in awe. “Then we wouldn’t ever have to graduate and we could just live with these guys forever and ever. Oh, but my _lack of swim_ would blow our cover.”

“They would rise up against us.”

“Maybe they’d all morph together to create one giant Super Otter. Like _Voltron_.”

“Or _Transformers_ ,” Kei contributes.

“Yes!” Yamaguchi chirps, slapping his hands on the railing with excitement.

“Otter mutiny.”

“It would be chaos!”

“It would be calamity.”

“More like _clam_ -ity.”

“Oh my god,” snorts Kei.

Yamaguchi laughs into his hands. Kei watches his fingers swipe across dense clusters of freckles. He blinks and pulls his focus back to the exhibit. He watches an otter and her pup peep at each other over a pile of rocks. Kei briefly turns over his shoulder to find that the exhibit has cleared out considerably, only them and a couple of sparse families strung along the glass partition. They remain shoulder to shoulder, still. Their ponchos crinkle together when Kei shifts in place.

“As long as you can float,” he says, “I think you can get by.”

He directs Yamaguchi’s attention to a pair of otters with joint hands. They bob on their backs atop the ring of crystal water that surrounds the rock den. One sleeps soundly while the other blinks suddenly awake, as if aware of Kei and Yamaguchi’s attention. Yamaguchi coos at them from Kei’s side, bent dramatically over the railing for a closer look. There is simply no possible way he can fall into the exhibit like they had planned, but Kei pinches the back of Yamaguchi’s sleeve between his thumb and forefinger anyway. Just as a precaution.

“Oh gosh, Tsukki, their _hands_. They’re _holding hands,_ ” he croons.

“Yes.”

“Could anything be cuter?”

“Yes,” Kei says again.

“ _Bzzt,_ ” Yamaguchi buzzes. “Wrong answer, Tsukki.”

“Are you going to dunk me in the water?”

Yamaguchi considers this.

“Yes. Wait, no. Wait. It depends—how cold is it?”

“Below two degrees Celsius,” Kei answers.

“Did you just know that? Or did you read it on one of the info screens?”

“Yamaguchi, it’s me.”

“Right,” nods Yamaguchi. “So no info screens.”

Kei grants him a quick, private grin before he snuffs it out and concentrates on the way Yamaguchi’s shoulder shakes against his with his subsequent chirp of laughter. When he quiets, the _splish-splash_ of swimming otters fills the exhibit. The constant rumble of aquarium patrons floats up the nearby staircase. Yamaguchi takes in soft breaths at his side. Of the pervading sounds, Kei filters out all but one.

“Why do they do that again?” Yamaguchi wonders quietly.

“Anything cooler would be detrimental to the otters.”

He shakes his head, flyaway strands of brunet bobbing with the motion.

“No, I mean—their hands. Why do they hold hands?”

Kei follows Yamaguchi’s gaze back to the pair of otters as they float.

“So they don’t lose one another,” he answers after a moment.

“Ah,” breathes Yamaguchi. “Good.”

“Good?” Kei parrots.

“Yeah. I mean, they’ve been in that tank together for probably a long time now.”

He nods. “Years.”

“They’ve been by each other’s side for years. They probably know each other really well. They’re practically family, you know?” Yamaguchi muses, loosening his grip on the railing. “They don’t want to lose each other. That would—that would suck.”

Weakly, Kei nods again. He watches the slow slide of Yamaguchi’s hand over the railing, towards his own.

Yamaguchi continues, his tan face splashed with pink, “They spend, like, _all_ of their time together. They can’t suddenly lose each other. That’s...that’s not fair. They’ve spent all those years learning everything about each other. Doing stuff together. Growing, um—growing close.”

“Close,” Kei mumbles as their pinkies brush.

“Yeah.”

Yamaguchi rests his pinky between Kei’s own and his ring finger. He looks squarely away and Kei takes the opportunity to let his eyes follow the curve of the shell of his ear, the red of his face, the hectic rhythm that repeatedly lifts his chest beneath his purple poncho. Kei’s breath catches when Yamaguchi turns on him a soft, easy grin.

“Best not to lose each other, then. Right, Tsukki?”

Their linked hands drop from the railing, fingertips threading together so, so gently.

“Right.”


End file.
